Saturday, April 23, 2011

Link on Ereader sales (last year 3rd quarter)

Note: The link ignores the IPad and Smartphones and only talks dedicated e-readers.

So some food for thought:41.5% were Amazon Kindles with 16.1% were Pandigital (Who?!?)16.5% were the Nook (Barnes and Noble)8.4% were the Sony Ereader8.2% were the Havon Wisereader (who? Apparently sold in China)

Now this is prior to the Nook Color. So I expect B&N is solidly up at #2 despite the low international presence (this is a global market share, not US market share).

I personally chuckle at the 15 million ereader sales predicted in 2011. It will be higher (despite tablets and the popularity).

So this implies:1. Amazon is losing out in some international markets (China is certainly going to be a weak point.) 2. Applications are almost certainly a substantial part of the ebook market (no duh...)

#2 is important. I personally think that if ebooks in one form are not available on a preponderance of devices, that format will find 'growth resistance.' e.g., where is the iBookstore app for the PC?

4 comments:

Amazon has some weaknesses in Europe too, Apple are making big moves (more in terms of iPhones and iPads rather than actually selling e-books), and Kobo have lots planned for the summer (B&N seem to have no interest in the international market).

You still can't even officially buy a Kindle outside of the UK and Germany (and the latter is only since this week, and all the menus and instructions are still in English and the price is 50% higher for all models).

I haven't seen one Kindle here in Stockholm since I moved here seven months ago (but lots and lots of iPhones and a few iPads) and all my friends across Europe say the same (with the exception of London).

Countries like Spain and Italy, most e-reading will be done on smartphones, in the short term at least.

Kobo is planning local language stores this summer (presumably with local-language devices) for Spain, Germany, France, Italy, and the Netherlands. They have already made significant inroads into New Zealand, Australia, and Hong Kong.

I can see Amazon losing the e-reader war in Europe yet still winning the e-book war.

And its just simple, stupid things too. Amazon ships the Kindle with a US plug.

It's not easy to find an adaptor in Europe for a US plug. How frustrating must that be after you open your shiny new Kindle that you waited weeks for (and paid extra in customs and delivery because Amazon refuse to sell in your country)?

I worked for a large, US, international, smart internet organisation. But until ex-US revenue exceeded US revenue, it was difficult to get any of our issues - simple no cost things - dealt with at a serious level.

That's why a smaller, more flexible company could be more of a threat than Amazon realises. They are probably only losing some market share to Apple by default - Apple don't care about books, but they do care about their customers.

Amazon hasn't even set up KDP in Canada yet. Crazy.

Spain is a big market too (when you throw in every country from Mexico down to Argentine (bar Brazil), with huge potential. Amazon never opened a Spanish site.

Now all the big Spanish publishers have come together and are offering a combined e-store. They are targeting Latin America in a big way.

I don't think they will succeed, but they will pave the way for someone else, and maybe not Amazon.

About Me

I love to parent, read, ski, travel, and scuba dive. I've switched from blogging about real estate to ebooks. As much of an optimist as I've been on ebooks, their growth is typically better than my predictions! My main prediction is 50% ebook market share by end of January 2013.
Any of my charts may be re-used with just a link to this blog (blog or specific post is up to whomever borrows the graphs).
Neil